The Hidden Summer by Gin Phillips (review)

Home is a disturbing place for sixth-grader Nell, whose mercurial mother switches randomly between gentleness and fury; in fact, Nell's mother is so intemperate that Nell's best friend, Lydia, is now forbidden to spend time with Nell. To get around this prohibition, Nell concocts a plan: she and Lydia will fake-attend summer school and summer day camp but actually spend their days together at Lodema, the abandoned golf course/resort near their houses. Their summer there is a blissful, if sweltering, idyll as they find fascinating features, like playground sprinklers and old towers, to explore. They also find Gloria and her children, who've been living on the old course since they lost their home; as Nell bonds with kind, motherly Gloria, however, Lydia becomes jealous of their closeness and unhappy that the summer plans for the two friends together have turned into something else. Phillips' prose is both fluid and plainspoken, evocative in a way easily accessible to preteen readers; her Alabama golf course is a blend of secret garden and Crusoe-esque island, simultaneously giving her protagonists both peace and adventure. While what happens outside of the golf course isn't as compelling, the book sensitively prioritizes Nell's new appreciation of her seemingly ferocious friend's vulnerability over changes in the home Nell largely abandoned. Just about every kid wants a special place all his or her own, so readers will easily warm to Nell's story and look hopefully around their own neighborhoods for an equivalent local paradise.